Diamondbacks hit 'dog days' of August with something to play for

What a difference a month can make. Just ask the teams that played in Friday’s game at Chase Field.

Ryan Waldschmidt walked off the Dodgers with a two-run blast in the bottom of the ninth inning, to secure the 4-3 victory for the Diamondbacks, their fifth straight win against L.A. That also made seven straight losses for Los Angeles, their longest losing streak of the season.

For the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, the dog days of August have arrived, but for both teams, there is still a lot to play for. They continue their series Saturday and Sunday, August 8-9, at Chase Field.

The Dodgers hadn’t won a single game in August heading into Saturday’s game. They are 0-6 and were on the wrong end of two sweeps that came at the hands of the Red Sox and Cubs before falling to the DBacks in the first of three games on Friday.

Arizona is 4-3 to start August, a month that’s often a turning point in the season for MLB teams, determining whether they will make a push for the playoffs or start looking to next season.

.Some of the young new Arizona faces had thoughts on why August can be a grind for teams and players.

“August is tough, no doubt,” Diamondbacks relief pitcher Brandyn Garcia said. “I think the All-Star break just kind of throws the flow off. You get those four days off and you’re at home relaxing and then you have to get back to the grind and a playoff push, no less, it’s tough.”

August has long been known to be a month where teams across baseball start to lose some steam.

In 2001, Stephen Cannella of Sports Illustrated defined “the dog days,” as “the time of year when the weather is hot, the body tired and, for the handful of teams that aren’t close to the wild card, the games meaningless.”

That’s not the case for the DBacks and Dodgers, which are looking for a third straight World Series title.

L.A. (69-47) had a 7½-game lead in the NL West after Friday’s game. The second-place DBacks (62-55) were tied with the Phillies for the second NL wild-card slot, six games behind the Cubs for the top wild card.

For Arizona relief pitcher Gerardo Carrillo, making that playoff push comes down to a number of things.

“I think it’s important for us to keep working,” Carillo said. “When we hit a wall keep working, lean on our recovery, sleeping well is huge, just leaning on our program and the training we still do throughout the year.”

Five of the team’s next eight series are against teams in the playoff hunt.

That’s something that is not lost on Garcia.

“I’m going through my first ‘dog days,'” Garcia said. “The thing I tell myself is every game matters. Just have to give it my all even through these dog days, I just play like I used to when I was a kid.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks hit ‘dog days’ of August with something to play for